UH pitcher Jared Ray feels the frustration as the Cougars fell to Rice 8-2 on May 6, 2011, at Cougar Field giving Owls coach Wayne Graham his 900th win. (Thomas B. Shea / For the Chronicle)

It has been a while since the Houston Cougars claimed victory against the Rice Owls on the baseball diamond. The last victory the Cougars notched was on May 1, 2009, at Cougar Field, the site of tonight’s game between the crosstown rivals, Houston and Rice, at 6:30 p.m.

Rice currently holds a 15-game winning streak in the Silver Glove Series. That includes Conference USA games, C-USA Tournament games and games that didn’t count for anything in the conference standings (like tonight’s game).

Some have been close, many have not been. The most recent meeting was a dramatic one that went into extra innings in the C-USA Tournament’s championship game at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss., last season. The streak is the longest in the history of the series.

Probable starters tonight are a pair of righthanders, Andrew Benak for Rice (1-0, 0.00 ERA) and Austin Pruitt (0-0, 0.00 ERA) for the Cougars. Benak, a Langham Creek High School graduate, is coming off a 10-strikeout outing in 5 1/3 scoreless innings against New Mexico State while Pruitt, a College Park High School alum, threw 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief with a walk and two strikeouts in Houston’s 3-2 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last week.

You can follow me (@skhanjr) and my esteemed colleague Joseph Duarte (@Chronicle_Owls) on Twitter for updates from tonight’s game at Cougar Field.

In the meantime, let’s take a glance back at the last 16 meetings between Houston and Rice — all of the games in the current Rice winning streak plus a look at Houston’s last win in the series, which came nearly three years ago:

May 28, 2011: Rice 4, Houston 3 (10 innings)
The Cougars had a 3-0 lead that Rice erased in the middle innings with a mix of clutch hitting and defensive miscues by Houston. Rice’s Craig Manuel hit a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Owls the win in the C-USA Tournament championship game, nullifying an eight-inning, one-earned-run, 123-pitch performance from righthander Jared Ray.

May 8, 2011: Rice 5, Houston 2
Rice righthander John Simms threw seven strong innings, allowing just one run on four hits, while Cougars’ starter Mo Wiley yielded four runs (three earned) in the first three innings. The Cougars managed just six hits on the day as Rice swept the three-game C-USA series

May 7, 2011: Rice 12, Houston 6
The Owls attacked UH lefthander Jordan Lewis early and often, tagging him with six runs (three earned) in 4 1/3 innings. Houston didn’t help its cause with four errors, while Rice infielder Michael Ratterree destoryed Houston pitching by going 4-for-5 with a homer, three RBIs and three runs scored.

May 6, 2011: Rice 8, Houston 2
The teams entered their 2011 C-USA series tied for second place in the conference but the Owls took over. Rice coach Wayne Graham notched the 900th win of his career. The Owls reeled off four runs in the fourth inning off of Jared Ray, including a Michael Ratterree two-run homer that gave Rice a 4-0 lead.

March 29, 2011: Rice 7, Houston 0
Rice sophomore righthander Tyler Spurlin was brilliant, allowing just two hits and no walks in six shutout innings at Reckling Park. Houston managed only those two hits, while third baseman Shane Hoelscher went 3-for-5 on the day. Anthony Rendon and Daniel Gonzales-Luna each had a pair of RBIs on the day.

March 23, 2011: Rice 7, Houston 2
The Owls compiled 14 hits, eight of which came off UH starter Chase Wellbrock, who the Owls chased after 2 1/3 innings and four runs. Houston managed a run in the first and the fourth but the Owls’ final three pitchers, Tyler Spurlin, J.T. Chargois and Tony Cingrani, held Houston to no runs and two hits in the final four innings.

May 27, 2010: Rice 24, Houston 3
No, it’s not a football score. The Owls reeled off 11 runs in the first inning of this C-USA Tournament meeting en route to putting together the largest margin of victory in the history of the series between the teams. Anthony Rendon racked up a game-high five RBIs, while No. 9 hitter Steven Sultzbaugh tacked on four and Michael Fuda and Diego Seastrunk each added three. Rice had 20 hits and each of the five Houston pitchers sent to the mound yielded at least three runs, including seven apiece by starter William Kankel and Matt Creel.

May 18, 2010: Rice 15, Houston 5
The Owls went deep four times, including two from Michael Ratterree, who had a whopping six RBIs in the win. Houston actually took a 5-3 lead in the second inning after reeling off five second-inning runs and maintained that lead until the sixth, but the floodgates opened as the Owls scored in each of the last four innings to run away with the win.

April 3, 2010: Rice 8, Houston 7 (12 innings)
Anthony Rendon hit a first-inning grand slam to give Rice an early lead but the Cougars chipped away and eventually took a 7-6 lead in the eighth inning. Rice added a run to tie it in the bottom of the eighth and the teams battled into extra innings until the 12th, when Craig Manuel hit a walkoff solo homer off Taylor Hammack for the win. Houston catcher Chris Wallace led Houston going 3-for-5 with two homers and five RBIs.

April 2, 2010: Rice 11, Houston 2
Houston outfielder Joel Ansley tied the game in the fourth with a solo homer to tie the game at 2-2 but Rice began to pull away after that, scoring nine runs over the next four innings to clinch the Silver Glove in 2010. Jeremy Rathjen went 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs while Diego Seastrunk went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

April 1, 2010: Rice 6, Houston 0
Rice lefthander Taylor Wall threw a one-hitter, striking out seven and walking two on 109 pitches to shut down the Cougars.

March 2, 2010: Rice 8, Houston 2
UH starter Mo Wiley was tagged for four runs on five hits in 2 1/3 innings while Rice starter Jared Rogers allowed just a run on five hits in six innings. Chase McDowell, Jimmy Comerota and Jeremy Rathjen each had two RBIs in the win.

May 22, 2009: Rice 7, Houston 2
In the Conference USA Tournament, Rice compiled seven runs on 12 hits, which included a two-run inside-the-park homer by Chad Mozingo in the seventh.

May 3, 2009: Rice 6, Houston 5
Houston pitcher Wes Musick allowed just three runs in his first seven innings of work and the Cougars were locked in a 3-3 tie from the fourth inning on, but Musick’s eighth unraveled as the Owls tacked on three more to pull away. The Cougars rallied in the bottom of the ninth with an RBI single from Jake Runte and an RBI double from Tom Wertz, but Matthew Reckling came in to notch the final two outs and shut the door on the Cougar comeback.

May 2, 2009: Rice 7, Houston 5
With the teams tied for first place in C-USA, they battled until the final inning. Locked in a 5-5 tie after eight frames, Michael Fuda and Craig Manuel came up with RBI singles for the go-ahead runs. The Cougars got the tying run to the plate on a pair of no-out walks in the ninth but stranded the runners as Rice began its most recent winning streak in the series.

May 1, 2009: Houston 7, Rice 4Jared Ray allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings and the Cougars collected five runs in the middle innings, powered by an RBI double by Blake Kelso, an RBI single from Chase Dempsay and two Rice errors in the fifth to take a 7-2 lead. Dempsay and Donnie Joseph combined for 3 2/3 innings of hitless, scoreless relief to seal the win, which tied the Cougars for first place in C-USA and was the last win Houston has had to date in the Silver Glove Series.